Thornton Through Time

This fascinating selection of photographs traces some of the many ways in which Thornton has changed and developed over the last century.

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Thornton, on the outskirts of Bradford, was actually the birthplace of the Brontes, not the West Riding moorland village of Haworth. Patrick Bronte came here in 1815, with a wife and two young children and left for Haworth five years later with six children, the last four being the most significant in the Bronte story. This fascinating area is brought to life here in Alan Whitworth's book. The Parsonage on Market Street in which the Bronte children were born and lived, is now a private residence and not open to the public. As for the rest of this village, a great deal still remains that would be familiar to the Brontes, the same steep cobbled streets which they trod are little changed, and many of the houses would have been visited by Patrick on his parochial duties.